Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Al-Qaeda is recruiting British children to carry out a terrorist attack on home soil, the head of the U.K.'s domestic security service said.
Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, said that the group led by Osama bin Laden is carrying out a "deliberate campaign'' against Britain to sign up young people.
"As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country,'' Evans told a group of newspaper editors in Manchester, northwestern England, according to remarks published on MI5's Web site.
"They are radicalizing, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism,'' Evans said. "This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity.''
The agency, which previously focused on the Cold War and terrorism in Northern Ireland, is devoting its resources to the threat from al-Qaeda. On July 7, 2005, suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system. The men who carried out the attack were born and educated in the U.K. with the youngest bomber aged just 18. After a separate, foiled attack on London on July 21, 2005, men who had resided in the U.K. were found guilty of terror offenses.
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